Reasons for change
A glance at the New York Times on-line front page this afternoon provides a pretty fair summation of why we should vote for John Kerry: 380 tons of explosives disappear in Iraq because the United States military and our civilian authority in Iraq did not secure them; Rehnquist was operated on for thyroid cancer; and the Pentagon has recommended an investigation of Halliburton contracts. Incompetence, cronyism, and the prospect of this "faith-based" President very soon naming the next Supreme Court Justice are far, far scarier than the Bush-Cheney '04 Wolf Pack ad.
In fact, it almost seems incredible that we could be getting such news of Iraq this close to the election. They managed to keep a lid on the last round of damning CIA reports, and they've kept this story of the missing explosives quiet for some time, but it leaks in the week before the election? Josh Marshall makes the point that Bremer apparently was told about the missing explosives problem this past May, and the U.S. at least nominally controlled the al QaQaa facility for about a year before that, so we've "known" about this for something like 18 months. But the White House claimed today that the administration had never heard of the explosive cache until a few days ago. Sigh. They've so de-sensitized us to their flat-out lies that it requires a serious effort of will to muster any outrage about it.
We can at least all agree that NOT knowing about a missing 380 tons of explosives belies even more incompetence. Um, you mean we didn't even ask the weapons inspectors for a list of Iraqi weapons caches before we presumed to invade and assume administration of the country? Kind of a silly oversight, huh? And what about those "America is safer without Saddam" claims the President keeps making? Ambrose's impression is that Saddam at least kept this kind of stuff locked up.
As for Rehnquist, the crashing silence on the subject is telling. Ambrose can only imagine that the prospect of even someone as radical as Rehnquist being replaced by Bush II is so frightening that no one wants to actually mention it in cold hard print.
Which brings us to Halliburton. Ambrose doesn't know if Halliburton did anything so particularly awful, or whether Cheney helped them to do it. But they're a symbol of all the riches that have been showered on the business sector by this administration. Corporate welfare has never had it so good, and we've got the deficits to prove it. It sounds completely crazy when Bush II talks about our terrific, growing economy--we say, "This guy is out of touch with reality!" because to ordinary people, in most business sectors, it seems quite evident that the economy sucks pretty thoroughly. But if you're in the defense industry, you sit there going, "Yeah, man, this economy is great and getting better!" And, of course, we know the industry focus of the Bush family investment management company . . . .
So, a day of news that screams Vote for Kerry! Ambrose hopes that people are watching and listening.
In fact, it almost seems incredible that we could be getting such news of Iraq this close to the election. They managed to keep a lid on the last round of damning CIA reports, and they've kept this story of the missing explosives quiet for some time, but it leaks in the week before the election? Josh Marshall makes the point that Bremer apparently was told about the missing explosives problem this past May, and the U.S. at least nominally controlled the al QaQaa facility for about a year before that, so we've "known" about this for something like 18 months. But the White House claimed today that the administration had never heard of the explosive cache until a few days ago. Sigh. They've so de-sensitized us to their flat-out lies that it requires a serious effort of will to muster any outrage about it.
We can at least all agree that NOT knowing about a missing 380 tons of explosives belies even more incompetence. Um, you mean we didn't even ask the weapons inspectors for a list of Iraqi weapons caches before we presumed to invade and assume administration of the country? Kind of a silly oversight, huh? And what about those "America is safer without Saddam" claims the President keeps making? Ambrose's impression is that Saddam at least kept this kind of stuff locked up.
As for Rehnquist, the crashing silence on the subject is telling. Ambrose can only imagine that the prospect of even someone as radical as Rehnquist being replaced by Bush II is so frightening that no one wants to actually mention it in cold hard print.
Which brings us to Halliburton. Ambrose doesn't know if Halliburton did anything so particularly awful, or whether Cheney helped them to do it. But they're a symbol of all the riches that have been showered on the business sector by this administration. Corporate welfare has never had it so good, and we've got the deficits to prove it. It sounds completely crazy when Bush II talks about our terrific, growing economy--we say, "This guy is out of touch with reality!" because to ordinary people, in most business sectors, it seems quite evident that the economy sucks pretty thoroughly. But if you're in the defense industry, you sit there going, "Yeah, man, this economy is great and getting better!" And, of course, we know the industry focus of the Bush family investment management company . . . .
So, a day of news that screams Vote for Kerry! Ambrose hopes that people are watching and listening.
posted by Ambrose at 5:08 PM
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